Cloud deployment strategies
AWS defines cloud computing as the on-demand delivery of IT resources over the internet with secure connectivity and pay-as-you-go pricing. Instead of owning and maintaining physical data centers and servers, you can access technology services—such as computing power, storage, and databases—on an as-needed basis from a cloud provider. Cloud computing allows FIs to avoid undifferentiated heavy lifting such as hardware procurement, maintenance, and capacity planning. When you adopt and deploy cloud solutions, you can choose from several options: single cloud, hybrid cloud, multicloud, and hybrid multicloud.
Single cloud – This model uses only a single cloud service provider (CSP). Single cloud applications and workloads are implemented directly in the cloud, or they're hosted in another environment and then migrated to the cloud. These workloads might use lower-level infrastructure services (for example, virtual machines) from their cloud provider or they might also take advantage of higher-level, managed services (such as managed database services). In either case, this model adopts a single cloud provider and uses cloud services only from that provider.
Hybrid cloud – This model distributes resources across an organization's own on-premises data center and at least one CSP. Typically, the purpose is to extend an organization's infrastructure into the cloud while maintaining private connectivity with existing internal systems that live on premises.
Multicloud – In this model, an organization runs significant workloads on multiple CSPs, excluding software as a service (SaaS) solutions. An organization might choose this option as a deliberate strategy or as an unintentional result of individual teams, departments, or staff members having their own CSP preferences.
Hybrid multicloud – In this model, hybrid and multicloud operations are not mutually exclusive, and many organizations use both operations. A discussion of this model is not within the scope of this paper.
